DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 23 -- FOR three weeks now, I have watched grown men (coaches, mind you, men who once shouted at referees with the fury of a jilted lover discovering WhatsApp blue ticks) calmly reach into their breast pockets, pull out a small card and hand it to the fourth official with the solemn dignity of someone paying a parking fine.

And I have asked myself: Who did this to us?

Who convinced Tanzania, a nation that has spent decades perfecting the art of disputing a throw-in until the sun starts setting, to suddenly trust a system with an acronym so bland it sounds like a government procurement form?

FVS: Football Video Support. Not VAR. Video Assisted Referee.

Never VAR.

Let us be honest with ourselves: We are not emotional...